Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (GEAG) is an NGO that undertakes development initiatives to impact positively the lives of the poor, deprived and marginalized sections of the society through a people-centred approach focusing on their participation, awareness and empowerment for sustainable development.

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In the 1970s, India had just adopted its first National Policy for Children. It was to become a hallmark policy among public pronouncement s of countries of the developing world. Among its pledges, it accorded ‘paramount importance’ to the best interests of the child in all matters of dispute.

As of 2013, a new policy replaced the 1974 NPC, and the pledge to paramountacy of children’s best interests was switched with a line acknowledging them as a matter of primary concern. The new policy, however, did affirm that India will extend its care and protection to ‘all children’ in its territory and jurisdiction.

In the 1970s, UNICEF headquarters regularly published a periodical called ‘UNICEF News.’ A notable issue carried the banner title ‘The Child in the City.’ It reported eloquently on the uncertainties of childhood in an urban poor setting. There was little good news, quite a number of warnings of the un-protectedness of children of the urban poor, and their growing numbers. Cities, the special issue said, were tending to cater to the rich; steps for their ‘modernisation’ were reducing spaces where the poor could live, and bypassing their need for basic services. Yet, migration into urban areas was growing.

With this background note, many pertinent questions arise on our understanding of ‘the child in the city’, and the effect of disasters on them. Who are these children of the city? Why are they more vulnerable? What do we mean by ‘resilience’? Is there more to it than simply ‘being prepared’?

The past few years in the Indian Sub-continent have been marked by aberrations in expected weather patterns. It has rained when it should not, in areas where it ‘normally’ did not, and it has failed to rain when it should, in other areas where it ought to have done so in its traditional season. Floods have broken their own records. Earthquakes are increasing, and choosing new locations. Hill-sides have become unstable, perhaps because of blocked drainage routes. And cities and towns have shown that they cannot cope. Climate change impact is a reality, though hard to say whether it is a cause or an effect.

City administrations add their own mistakes to the blighting of urban areas. The felling of trees has denuded large areas, and unsettled ground spaces that depended on the holding powers of roots and the kindness of green cover. In some parts of the country, water tables have fallen in both fields and city spaces. In other places, water can be tapped just a few feet underground, but the mix of sewage seeping into the ground with the water sources makes its dangerous to use. The fields and forests themselves have fallen to the outward growth of cities and towns. Temperature patterns have been affected. As dust levels as well as air pollution and smog are increasing, so are the risks they pose to health. Many towns and cities are ringed by ‘industrial areas,’ which contribute their own burdens to the viability of urban settlements. The awesome generation and accumulation of waste, and the generally poor disposal mechanisms add filth to other hazards.

Congestion is a serious and oppressive hazard in urban areas, and both construction and settlement are its signs and symptoms. Maintenance programmes and services stand defeated by both un-controlled building and the steady influx of people coming to settle or to seek seasonal work. As older parts of urban settlements become crowded with people who cannot provide or support the upkeep of buildings they occupy, old ownership gives way to squatter occupation, buildings deteriorate and collapse. Many urban dwellers have no roof over their heads. Also among them are children without any adult presence or support in their daily lives.

Risk awareness and risk analysis are one thing, risk prevention another. Risk reduction is yet another, but are we speaking of ‘before’, ‘during’ or ‘after’? Survivors of risk realities, adults or children, generally have to learn how to cope and to pick up the pieces of their lives. But they do not become vulnerable or needy only when misfortune strikes; they already are.

And protective and caring governance mechanisms require training and orientation firmly grounded in ethics. ‘Resilience’ is to be carefully defined, and the responsibility for “being prepared” like a good ‘Boy Scout,’ should not be assigned primarily to the potential victim of disaster.

The author of this blog is Ms Razia Ismail who is the co-founder and Convenor of the Indian Alliance for Child Rights (IACR). She has served in UNICEF for 23yrs, at Regional and Country Offices. She is a recognised child rights advocacy expert and trainer in India, South Asia and West Asia.

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Climate change impacts each one of us, but children are the most vulnerable and consequently the worst affected. Our children are our future; and their well-being, healthy growth and safety must be our top priority. Children are, and will be affected by climate change and disasters; through malnutrition, diseases, physical and psychological trauma, to name just a few. Not only do they have to cope with the direct consequences of climate change, but also suffer its ripple effect on their family and living environment, through loss of habitat and livelihood.

Climate related disasters are not only increasing in frequency and intensity, but will only get worse with time. The stress induced and the adverse impacts of these disasters are both projected to increase, and will impact children, particularly those who are deprived and living in poverty, the most. Heat waves, floods, droughts, sea-level rise, cyclones, landslides are all likely to increase and these will affect all those living here in varied environments in different ways.

The impact on the children will be multi faceted. Schools can get destroyed, education severely impacted, and children taken out of school to contribute to the diminishing household income. Loss of habitat and homes can result in temporary or permanent migration, which again affects education and the well-being of children. Safety and security of children is another major concern that could further be impacted by such events. Thus, climate change will have short and long-term impact on children’s health, education, growth and also their future.

Droughts will not only impact food security, but also result in children dropping out of school to help the family fetch water or contribute to the family income. Fetching water from long distances (a job often thrust on children) can impact children’s health. Scarcity of water can result in the use of contaminated water, leading to water borne diseases and disabilities, which also impacts the growth of children.

Heavy precipitation is causing floods in many urban areas. Young children easily drown in such suddenly created pools of water, walk in the dirty water mixed with sewage and solid waste, get injured and fall ill. Open defecation can further exacerbate problems as fecal matter gets mixed with flood/ stagnant waters and results in serious illnesses. Floods can destroy school buildings, health facilities and infrastructure. Even though the buildings can be repaired post flood, moisture on the walls remains for a long time and can cause respiratory problems amongst children. This makes them vulnerable to other types of diseases too, due to their reduced immunity.

With global warming happening at an unprecedented scale, children will be highly affected by the heat stress, both in schools and at home. Children can suffer heatstroke, fall ill or even die due to extreme heat, exposure to sun, or dehydration. The indirect impacts include faster deterioration of cooked food, limited outdoor physical activity, and malnutrition. Adaptation measures can reduce the adverse impact of heat stress. These include – indoor sports facilities, playgrounds with trees and greenery, school buildings with good ventilation and cool roofs, solar powered fans (to cope with
power shortages during severe summer heat), and recycling wastewater to deal with water scarcity. Use of indigenous earthen wares to keep food safe and water cool, and promotion of traditional architecture to keep houses cool by using local designs, materials and paints, can also help reduce this heat stress.

Children should not be viewed only as recipients who will be impacted by climate change; they can also contribute to adaptation. Older children often have innovative ideas that can tackle problems. They must be consulted and their participation in decision making be encouraged. Their innovations and experiments can provide local level solutions that may be simple and easy to implement. Also, they can act as catalysts, who can change adult behavior and at the same time teach younger children too.

Children today will become adults tomorrow. If we do not focus on the health, education and safety of our children today, we may not be able to reap the demographic dividends of tomorrow. We may have a population that is less productive, a liability for our vision of a developed nation. Therefore, we must take care of the well-being of our children today, for a brighter tomorrow.

Prof Usha P. Raghupathi, the author, is a retired Professor from National Institute of Urban Affairs.

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By 2030, one in every three people will live in cities. The impact of this on the cities and its infrastructures will be enormous. In such a scenario, the peripheral land around these cities becomes important both in terms of opportunities and vulnerabilities.

Here is a compilation of simple queries to understand peri-urban aspects better.

What is understood by peri-urban areas?

The dictionary defines peri-urban as an area immediately surrounding a city or town. Generally used in a narrow, geographical sense, it is used to describe the informal settlements that adjoin cities, a hybrid landscape where activities of the rural and urban population often juxtapose without any clear cut demarcations. Thus, they are neither truly urban nor rural, but occupy a space between the two, in such a way that urban and rural features co-exist here.

Peri-urban may be thus understood as a fast-changing, semi-natural ecosystem which provides natural resources for growing cities while depending on the urban markets for sales and employment. It is a two-way interaction that places a low premium on preserving the ecosystem, affecting not only the livelihoods of those directly dependent on it but also the city itself.[i]

What is the definition of peri-urban areas?

Achieving a precise and accurate definition of peri-urban is a challenging task and there is no clear cut consensus on the actual definition of the word. Not clearly definable, given the contextual and situational specificities involved, in most parts of the world peri-urban spaces are rapidly expanding and being occupied by increasing numbers of people (Dutta, 2012; McGregor et al., 2005; Kayser, 1990). In reality it is a complex, dynamic, transitional space whose boundaries are in flux, dependent upon various factors; often conceptualised as:

The transitional zone between a sprawling city and its rural surroundings (Dutta, 2012)

An ‘uneasy phenomenon’ characterised by ‘either the loss of rural aspects (loss of fertile soil, agricultural land, natural landscape, etc.) or the lack of urban attributes (low density, lack of accessibility, lack of services and infrastructure, and ‘lack of urban attributes’: Allen (2003)

‘Peri-urban’ used as a term qualifying areas with mixed rural and urban features: (Laquinta, D., L, Drescher, A., W, 2001)

Peri-urban interface is often described “not [as] a discrete area, but rather [as] a diffuse territory identified by combinations of features and phenomena, generated largely by activities within the urban zone proper’: Nottingham and Liverpool Universities, 1998

What characteristics make peri-urban areas both distinct and vulnerable?

Urban does not stop or rural begin, immediately at the edge of a city. These areas on one hand have great potential, but they also face crippling disadvantages due to certain primary characteristics. They are typified by mixed agricultural and non-agricultural land uses and flows of goods, services and resources between villages and urban centres and a perpetually changing heterogeneous social population. This leads to specific environmental and natural resource problems beyond the scope of urban or rural governments individually which need innovative approaches (Prakash, 2012, Narain, 2010; Allen, 2003).[ii]

Peri-urban areas generally are characterised as :

A transition zone

A crowded, contested space

Very vulnerable

Sites of rapid growth

Neither geographically nor conceptually well-defined

No clear cut government policies defined

Environmentally more unstable than rural or urban areas

Face uncertain land tenures

Have inferior infrastructure, low incomes

What are the issues faced by peri-urban areas?

People living in the peri-urban areas are often at the forefront of major issues, that include the following:

Depleting resources like water, forests, open green lands

Degraded environment

Intense pressure on land, resources & existing ecosystems

Lack of adequate services like sanitation, transport or water supply

Used as dumping grounds for city’s waste

Degradation of agricultural land

Rapid land use change

Human health issues

Social impact as occupations change

Non farm use of agricultural land

Deteriorating quality of life

Deforestation

Pollution

Non-existent mechanisms for public service deliveries

What services does a peri-urban ecosystem provides to people?

Ecosystem services provided by a peri-urban areainclude the following:

Supporting services: Ecosystem services ‘that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services’ (MEA, 2005: 40) such as nutrient dispersal and cycling, seed dispersal, primary production.

Regulating services: ‘Benefits obtained from the regulation of ecosystem processes’ (ibid) such as carbon sequestration and climate regulation, waste decomposition and detoxification, water and air purification, natural hazard mitigation, pest and disease control or erosion control.

When urban grows disorderly and sprawls to peri-urban area, this process can be referred as peri-urbanisation. It is also defined as the processes of dispersive urban growth that creates hybrid landscapes of fragmented urban and rural characteristics.

Peri-urbanisation also leads to usurpation of ecologically sensitive lands for housing and other construction activities. These change the face of agriculture, reduce open spaces, enhances pressure on natural resources like water. These areas are marked by a lack of hygiene and sanitation infrastructure, industrial effluence, air pollution and inadequate provision of basic services. Often, the solid waste of a city is dumped in peri-urban areas (Marshall et al., 2009:7).[i]

How are urban and peri-urban areas interdependent on each other?

Peri-urban areas depend on urban areas for schools, hospitals and government services, improved infrastructure facilities and better employability avenues. The peri-urban areas provide larger land holdings, cheap labour, agricultural produce and fresh food to those living in urban centres. This changing reality increases the movement of people, goods and services between the two. Agriculture in peri-urban areas helps in alleviating food insecurity and is also instrumental in enhancing the nutritional status of the marginalised or the urban poor.

What types of environmental degradation occurs in peri-urban areas?

These areas of hurried expansion and development face the following environmental challenges:

Threat to existing ecosystems

Groundwater depletion and contamination

Dwindling natural resources

Urban heat islands

Ungoverned solid waste management and disposal

Increased air quality pollution

What are the areas of conflict between the two?

Peri-urban areas are usually subject to a whirlwind of construction activity in a short span of time. The drastic land use change coupled with divergent interests may lead to land dispute or conflict. Also, these zones being cheaper and generally under tenuous regulations, offer an alternative for informal settlements around the city.

Who is responsible for peri-urban areas?

There is no official term ‘ peri-urban’ in the government’s dictionary. No parameters identify it, and they are neither recognized as a space or a social unit. They do not fall within the city’s official jurisdiction and lack critical infrastructure and governance systems. They are thus not served by any municipality to provide basic services, nor are a priority for departments dealing with rural development. Hence, these areas become nobody’s children; and no one bears responsibility for them. [iv]

10. What is urban climate change resilience (UCCR)?

UCCR is understood as the capacity of cities to function, so that the people living and working in cities— particularly the poor and vulnerable—survive and thrive in the face of shocks and stresses related to climate change. [ii]

Urban resilience to climate change describes a city that is resilient on three levels: the systems of the city survives shocks and stresses; the people and organisations are able to accommodate these stresses into their day-to-day decisions; and that the city’s institutional structures continue to support the capacity of people and organisations to fulfil their aims.

The Rockefeller Foundation defines urban resilience as the capacity of cities (individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and systems) to survive, adapt, and thrive in the face of stress and shocks, and even transform when conditions require it.

How can peri-urban areas contribute to UCCR?

Peri-urban areas and their ecosystems provide essential services that contribute towards climate change resilience in the following ways:

The number of urban dwellers is growing by 2 per cent a year globally. So whether you live in a city or near it, you will be affected by this rapid rate of urbanisation taking place around you in some way or the other. Rural migration to cities, air quality, loss of empty, green spaces; these and many more will affect residents like you and the environment around them. And inclusion of the climate change factor increases the need to become more resilient.

How can I know more about what’s happening in this space?

There is a huge amount of interest to understand how peri-urban ecosystems function, what are the services they provide, and why are they important for political economy and sustainable growth.

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As urban population continues to grow, peri-urban areas become the logical choice for additional housing, infrastructure and associated activities. Most of the times this space is regarded as a ‘solution in waiting’ to the growing clamour for a city’s rapid development, one that can be casually bulldozed over. Open fields are concretised; flood plains built over; and small, marginalised farms lost to the greater need of an urban sprawl.

And here, it is the existing ecosystems in this peri-urban space that bear the brunt of this unhindered spread. The ecosystems and their services are lost in the booming real estate din. The ‘extractive‘ nature of urbanisation places a low premium on preserving the ecosystem; and people’s livelihoods and the city, both are greatly affected. Most often, peri-urbanisation eventually leads to the usurpation of this ecologically sensitive land.

What happens next? The face of agriculture changes, open space reduces and pressure on natural resources increases. These areas are then marked by a lack of hygiene and sanitation infrastructure, industrial effluence, air pollution and inadequate provision of basic services. Very often, the city’s solid waste too is dumped in these peri-urban areas.

But we forget that it is these ecosystems that help provide a city with essential services. The fresh vegetables and fruit on your table, the clean air, places that uplift you emotionally and spiritually; these are just some of the many benefits that a city derives from its peripheral areas. In addition, they enhance the redundancy and flexibility of urban systems, and help ensure that any failures are ‘safe failures’ so as to minimise future damages

Also, contemporary land acquisition policies disregard social equity and environmental integrity, undermining a city’s capacity to adapt to climate change and rendering the peri-urban areas and poorer populations more vulnerable. Environmental degradation, natural resource conflicts, health concerns and social injustice are particularly acute in these peri-urban areas that are excluded in formal planning processes.

Can a city strengthen itself? Yes, it helps if it follows an ecosystem-based approach to urban climate change adaptation and resilience. And it is only when people are rooted in their original habitat, but with total access to their development rights as well as basic needs, that they are able to preserve the ecosystem, so vital to the health and also the resilience of a city.

Thus, protecting ecosystems and ecosystem services in peri-urban areas is essential to the survival of the poor and to enhance the city’s resilience. Central to a systems approach is the protection of urban and peri-urban agriculture. Peri-urban areas cannot be viewed as ‘waiting rooms‘ for entry to urban areas. What is needed is a fundamental change in mindsets, to prevent further land-use changes and unregulated construction activities.

For example, in Gorakhpur city in Uttar Pradesh (India) where we work, peri-urban areas are conceptualised as those villages that are included in the city’s master plan. The term peri-urban is not used, which means that the social, economic, ecological and administrative changes occurring in these villages, as distinct from those villages that are strictly rural, are ignored. This has led to many changes, not necessarily for good.

Has this been your experience too? Share with us your insights on the ecosystems in the peri-urban areas around you.

Has rapid urbanisation in your city led to the degradation of peri-urban ecosystems?

What has been the counter effect of this degradation on the city and its people? And the repercussions on the peri-urban population?

Do you believe that your city’s resilience capacity has been affected? How so?

We invite you to please share your experiences from your countries and regions so that we can together understand these peri-urban ecosystems and their relevance in a better way.

Join us at our Urban, Peri-Urban and Ecosystems Working Group, where we exchange ideas and experiences and undertake joint advocacy initiatives in a collective form, to map the diversity of problems between cities and landscapes, and the real and potential scale of loss & damage.

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The heat is on and water pangs are already being felt across southern India. With summer just around the corner, frayed tempers and water conflicts seem to be on the rise; and the clamour for water worsens. As per a latest report, India tops the list of having the largest number of people living in rural areas without access to clean water. These whopping 63 million Indians, nearly as many as all the people living in the United Kingdom, spend hours queuing up for water, coping with the ill health of using contaminated water.

Even as agriculture and irrigation use up the largest chunk of fresh water; almost 90% of wastewater flows untreated into rivers, lakes and coastal zones: threatening health, food security and polluting water bodies.

Can this water wastage be reduced? Or can the water be atleast safely treated and reused? The World Water Day 2017 resonate this simple query: Why waste water?

And Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur city is echoing exactly that! Under the glittering hoardings and frenzied activity, its peri-urban area refuses to be a willing sewage receptacle for the city’s waste. The locals have joined forces, and reinforced their resources and strengths. With the help of ‘Decentralised Wastewater Treatment System or DEWATS’, they have begun to treat the waste water from their homes, before releasing it into the fields and rivers.

No longer a ‘dumping, stinking backyard’ for the cities waste, this peri-urban area is now what it should be for its people- a home and a haven.

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, about 15 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas. By 2050, almost three quarters of the world’s population is expected to live here. In India, 31.16 per cent of the total population, about 377 million people, already live in urban areas (Census of India, 2011). Thus as cities are stretched to their limits, they break through the existing boundaries, and begin to expand and grow. And the population influx overflows into the city’s peripheral land, which is neither totally urban, nor remains rural much longer.

This transitional area, the peri-urban space, soon becomes the ground for unprecedented and hasty transformations in the name of development and progress. This expansion and the ensuing land-use change destroy ecosystems, leading to a host of related problems. Add to these the archaic policies that view urban and rural in terms of people or geographical spaces, and the impacts are grossly multiplied.

Why is direct attention to this essential area lacking? Is it because ‘peri-urban’ space itself is not clearly understood even as pre-conceived ideas persist about them?

We view peri-urban area either from a geographical, land-use, or a social relations perspective. We understand it on the basis of its proximity to an urban area, because it lies just outside the city municipal area, the people living there or maybe based on the un-urban like activities that occur there.

Assumptions of rural-urban areas too exist: Rural livelihood must be agriculture, horticulture or animal husbandry based; Urban has to be associated with manufacturing, services and commercial activities. We forget about the sectoral interactions that occur here, rural activities do take place in urban areas and services in rural or peri-urban areas.

Thus, only a place based definition provides an incomplete picture of what peri-urban areas are like. This ‘space’ must envelop dynamic interactions between population and the landscape; their associated land uses and livelihoods; and support the notion of a vibrant flow of agricultural goods and ecological services both within this zone and between it and the urban core areas.

Also, peri-urban boundaries are constantly in the state of flux and are shifting. This area experiences high spatial uncertainty, which results in undesirable, complicated land use/land cover. They are most vulnerable to loss of biodiversity and vegetation. This necessitates the protection of land use patterns and common property resources. But does that always happen?

Share with us your views and experiences, so that together, we understand our peri-urban spaces a little better.

Do the current top-down policies for land acquisition by the land authorities in our developing cities consider social equity and environmental integrity?

Is the peri-urban land primarily viewed as a future extension of a city’s master plan?

How does your city view its peri-urban space? Do the city laws persist there or is it a ‘nobody’s child’?

This blog was first published by the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network, ACCCRN, here and is on the various notions of peri-urban spaces from an Indian context. A discussion thread has been initiated on the understanding, definitions and conceptualizations of peri-urban areas. Often this issue of clear notions and definitions of peri-urban spaces has been seen as an impediment in the overall development and governance of peri urban areas.

We invite you to please share your experiences from your countries and regions so that we can together understand these peri urban spaces in a better way.

Join us at our Urban, Peri-Urban and Ecosystems Working Group, where we exchange ideas and experiences and undertake joint advocacy initiatives in a collective form, to map the diversity of problems between cities and landscapes, and the real and potential scale of loss & damage.

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Disasters cannot be predicted completely, but better panning and readiness can surely reduce its impacts. And if women are included in the complete process, right at the beginning itself, from participatory discussion, decision making to training, not only will they become less vulnerable, but also strengthen the resilience of the land and her people.

The next step forward was to formulate additional strategies required in Phase II to ensure that the project becomes more gender inclusive. Discussions were held with women and men from the community and government officials at district, state and national levels, as also the staff of GEAG, ISET and NIDM. Both villages and urban habitats were covered to understand sex/gender related vulnerabilities a little better.

The underlying idea was to understand the crucial factors that would encourage the mainstreaming of gender issues in disaster management policies.The seven measures that we believe are needed to strengthen integration of gender concerns are:

Assess gender vulnerability
Greater focus must be on poorer economic groups, differently abled, transgender, single women, elderly women, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women, anaemic women etc. Participatory tools must be used for facilitating discussions and a tool kit evolved to assess gendered vulnerabilities, adaptation and resilience. Atleast three habitations (village/urban habitat) should be selected per district/state for this assessment.

Improve capacity building
Build a core team to steer gender mainstreaming, preferably with atleast one staff member a woman. Hold workshops and aim for 33% women delegates as women. Organise a three monthly meeting on gender during inter-departmental meetings to build further capacity, or devote half an hour in each quarterly meeting to address gender concerns in DRR/CCA (Disaster Risk Redution and Climate Change Adaptation) integrated DDM (Department of Disaster Management).

Beyond district level
Carry out Training of Trainers (ToT) for senior officials that focus on perspective building and gender mainstreaming. Prepare case studies in English and the local language for better dissemination. Pilot two modules on gender, DRR/CCA in DM (Disaster Management) and institutionalise the same within NIDM/SDMAs (National Institute of Disaster Management/ State Disaster Managment Authority). Training methods to include document analysis, case studies, role plays, videos or participatory methods.

Make guidelines gender sensitive
Engender guidelines pertaining to DM/DRR along with other relevant stakeholders and share comments to the government on the national level ones. Ensure that the District Collector’s Handbook developed to provide practical tips and guidelines to the administrative heads of districts too is gender oriented.

Work on the UP Action Plans on CCA and Floods
Integrate gender concerns in DRR, disaster management and post disaster adaptation and recovery. Reach out to the possibility to influence the National Plan of Action on Climate Change and National Disaster Management Policy, 2009 from a gender lens.

Baselines and monitoring system
Create gendered baselines in 3 villages per district in accordance with VDMPs (Village Disaster Management Plans). Indicators may be evolved in a participatory manner, covering inputs, process, outputs and outcomes.

Create gendered knowledge products
Encourage knowledge products to view gender concerns. Create specific products that focus on gendered vulnerabilities in the context of climate change and disasters, and integrate of gender concerns within DDMPs. These should be also be translated into local languages.

So, inspite of gender integration not being an agenda in Phase I, progress was made in this direction. Similarly, the government has also incorporated, to varying degrees, gender issues in guidelines, plans and policies. The time is now, to incorporate lessons from the Phase I experience and move towards a strategy that gives women a better chance to rebuild her life and future, for a more resilient tomorrow.